Hands Up
by x-backtoblack-x
Summary: It takes losing the thing you love most to make you realise how much you actually need it to survive. At least it did for Beca.


_Oh my God, something is wrong  
I'm floatin' down a river where I don't belong  
Without you  
'Cause if I fall without you  
Now I see it's all clear to me  
I could do a lot of things, but I could never be  
Without you  
'Cause if I fall without you…_

"We made it." Beca murmured, her head resting softly against Chloe's shoulder, their fingers entwined.

"Yea… yea we did." Chloe laughed softly, a smile engulfing her face as she swayed softly on the spot.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Why are you doing this?" Beca cried in frustration, watching as Chloe went around the apartment, picking her belongings off the shelves and placing them in boxes. "You really think this is the right thing to do?" She challenged, her hands clenched into fists.

"No, no I don't think it's the right thing." Chloe spat back, her words seeming sad rather than angry. "How could I possibly think this is the right thing Beca? I love you so much it hurts. So no, this isn't the right thing to do, it's the better thing." She finished crisply, throwing a few more of her things into the box.

"You just… you don't need to do this, you don't need to make it so final Chlo'… please?" She pleaded, trying now to block the older woman's path.

"Yes I do because you won't talk to me." Chloe sighed, her anger subsiding into grief. "You just expect me to love you yet you've never once opened up and loved me back… sure you've said it, you've said the words Beca, but it's always just been routine, you've always just said them because I said it first, or because someone asked… have you ever really thought about it before? Thought what it really is to love me? To love anyone?" She prompted, knowing what her answer would be.

Silence. Earth shattering silence. Exactly what she'd expected.

"Yea… I thought so." Chloe whispered, a solitary tear escaping from her crystal blue eyes. "I love you Beca Mithcell, I always have and I always will… but I'm not coming back unless you can say the same to me… and mean it."

With that she was gone, and what was worse was that Beca didn't know if she'd ever be able to get her back.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Beca… it's… it's three in the morning what the actual fuck are you-" Chloe murmured, eyes not fully open and brain not fully functioning as she stood in the door of Aubrey's apartment.

"I love you." Beca cut her off quickly, feeling more afraid in that moment than she'd ever felt in her entire life, standing outside Aubrey's door in nothing but her pyjamas a trench coat and a pair of fluffy socks, looking like she hadn't actually slept since the day Chloe had walked out almost a week ago.

"You what?" Chloe shot back, her sleep clouded mind suddenly clearing as everything snapped to attention.

"You were right." Beca continued rather than repeat what she'd just said. "I never meant it before, because I never felt this before. I've never been this scared in my entire life. I've never opened myself up to anyone like this before because it sucks, like really, really sucks. I feel like at any second you could just rip my heart out and stand on it and leave me to die because you can do that now, because you're the person that owns it now, it's not my heart anymore it's yours."

"I'd never…" Chloe started softly, but she was cut off when Beca continued with her speech regardless.

"It's your heart now Chloe, and I think it has been for a very long time, because that night when you walked out, you done just that. You stood on my heart and I thought I'd be able to piece it back together and get on with life and find a way of winning you back without opening myself up to more pain but I couldn't. I couldn't do it, and the more I tried, the more I realized that I didn't want to. I didn't want to keep myself closed off and I didn't want to not be able to give all of myself to you because not only is it what you deserve… but also… as long as I've got you I'm going to be okay. I know I will. You're all I need and all I'll ever need because when you're not around me there's something just off balance with my life." She confessed all at once, taking a short pause for breath before she continued, never once breaking her stare with Chloe. "I want you to marry me."

"… Marry?" Chloe repeated dumbly, the word refusing to process. "White dress, marry?"

"Any dress you want Chlo'." Beca smiled softly. "I just… I need to know that what happened on Tuesday night will never happen again. I need to know that you'll be there forever because I don't think I'd last if you weren't. I don't know how I'd be able to continue if for some reason you weren't there anymore… especially if it was for something as stupid as me not being able to say I love you."

"Say it again." Chloe beamed, the situation finally beginning to clarify with her as Beca's words fell into place.

"I love you Chloe Beale… So will you marry me." Beca asked again, this time getting down on one knee and taking Chloe's hands in her own.

"Jesus Christ Chloe you better say yes!" Came Aubrey's sudden sobbing from within the apartment, the blonde apparently having heard the entire conversation. "And screw you Beca Mitchell for making me not hate you anymore." She added with a broken breath.

"I guess I don't really have a choice then." Chloe giggled, pulling Beca back to her feet. "Apparently I've found someone that Aubrey actually approves of." She smiled, resting her forehead against Beca's.

"That's obviously the deal breaker." Beca snorted, feeling like a weight had been lifted from her chest.

"No…" Chloe whispered then, bringing her hands up to cup Beca's cheeks. "The deal breaker is the fact that I love you. I love you more than I've ever loved anyone else on this planet and I'm so glad you realized you loved me too, because I really don't think I'd have lasted much longer without you." Leaning in then to let their lips meet tenderly, both of them pouring all the emotion they couldn't express in words into the kiss.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"I love you Beca Mitchell." Chloe murmured contently as the last few bars of "Hands Up" crooned out over the speakers and the room rose to their feet to applaud the newlyweds.

"I love you too Chloe Mitchell." Beca replied instantly, knowing there were two things she'd never get sick of in life, Chloe having her surname, and being able to say "I love you" and really mean it.

_Hands up  
Take it all away  
If I got you then I'll be ok  
I know, now everybody say  
If I got you I like it that way  
If I got you then I'll be ok  
If I got you I like it that way._


End file.
